//------------------------------// // Some Stupidity and Some Questions are Answered. // Story: I'm a loli?!? // by aterriblewriter //------------------------------//  Thanks to Spoon, the rest of my time at school passed pretty quickly. She was even nice enough to try to give me the names of the few ponies I didn't know the names of, when we had some time. Though, I believe she was being mean to them, I don't think Zoe's name was Chicken..... After some note passing and disappointed glares, she reluctantly passed Zoe and her Friends' real names, to her best of her ability. The names felt a little... off, like they were missing bits and pieces. Suppressing a laugh at Zoe's real name, I crack open my soda, the noise startling those around me. I shrug at the reactions, not really caring at the moment. The class had ended a few minutes ago and I was waiting out front for Spoon, the teacher called Spoon to her desk before I left. Scooter, Applebloom and Sweets were the only few that took their seats with me, unsure of what I'm doing. Gamer guy had spotted me with them, giving a us wave before going towards wherever he was going. "-I can't believe Silver Spoon has a crush on our new initiate.-" Sweets mutters, giving me a concerned look. "-Ah know what ya mean, she never really shown an interest in anypony, 'sides Tiara.-" Applebloom nods, rubbing her chin in thought. "-Girls, we need to stop them from taking Dakota.-" Scooter suddenly says, giving me an unreadable look. "I swear, she would be great at poker. I just can't get a read on her....." I think to myself. "These kids are pretty much open books, except for her......" I shrug, not caring at the moment. "Meh, It's probably nothing." "-Scoots, aren't you overreacting? I'm pretty sure they'll hang out with her until they get tired of her, remember what happened with Twist when she got her cutie mark?-" Sweets reminds. "-Yeah, but that's different. Twist's lisp does tend to get annoying after a while. Dakota can do cool things, just look at what she did to get her lunch! With her magic, they could get anything they want! Who would pass up the chance to be friends with her at this point? -" Scooter points out, shaking her head. "-Ah guess yer right.....-" Applebloom shudders at the thought. "-Ahem!-" Someone cleared their throat, making the trio jump in surprise. Spoon and Tiara had just left the school, coming to a stop behind me, glaring at the trio. "-If you would kindly excuse us, blank flanks. Dakota is going to be with us after school today, not with you three.-" Silver says with barely disguised disdain, making me frown at her attitude. "-Since when was she yer friend?-" Applebloom argues, pointing at Spoon in annoyance.       "-Since I had helped to teach her how to read Equish. I had even took notes on her language, meaning, I can write some basic sentences for her to read.-" Spoon smiled smugly. "-You three blank flanks probably didn't even think of doing that, did you? It just goes to show how much better we are than you three imbeciles." She says with a shrug, adjusting her glasses with a hoof. In a flash, Scooter got up in Spoons face, glaring furiously. "-If I were you, I'd shut up before something bad happens.-" Scooter venomously whispers, making Spoon flinch. "-Alright, you got the message. Now, if you do anything mean to Dakota..... I will not hesitate to dye your mane a nice shade of pink in your sleep. Remember, we all know where you live.-" Spoon slowly blinks,  nodding even slower. Scooter gives a small nod, pleased that the threat worked. Scooter turned back to her friends. "-Well, let's get going!-" She announced, quickly walking down the street and earning some confused looks from her friends. "-Uhh... What was that?-" Applebloom asks, following after, her friend. "Huh.... What's going on? Aside from the obvious rivalry, that is." I confusedly ask, looking at Sweetie, who just thoughtfully looked between Scoots and I, before running off after her friends. "-Pffft, that oversized chicken isn't stupid enough to do that, our parents pretty much own the town.-" Tiara scoffs. "-Yeah.... She isn't....-" Spoon trails off, staring in the direction the trio went. "Hey, Spoon." I took a sip of my soda and started scratching her ear, getting her attention off of Scooter. "I don't know what ya said to 'em.... But could you at least try to be nice to them?" I ask, knowing my words fell on deaf ears, after seeing Spoon lean into my hand. "Never mind......" I blink, hearing her start groaning. "-Uh, Spoon?-" Tiara asks, looking a little uncomfortable at the sight of her friend twitching in pleasure at my scratches. "-Are you alright?-" She hesitantly asks, seeing Spoon's eyes roll into the back of her head.    "-Just....... wonderfullllll.....-" Spoon dreamily moans, making me feel dirty and stop with the scratches. "-Awwww.....-" "-So, uh, let's get going Spoon.....-" Tiara says with a blush, looking at my hands with horrified curiosity. Spoon, having finally realized what she had done, blushed and took a few moments to compose herself. "-Er, right! Your place, right?-" She asks, readjusting her glasses in an attempt to hide the blush. "-Yeah.... My place...-" They started walking down the street, me closely following suit behind them. It wasn't too long before we entered the fancier part of town, seeing as the houses were bigger and much more expensive looking. There were less ponies walking about here, some of which looked like they could be the hired help, seeing the outfits they were wearing. The few ponies that weren't too engrossed in their work, gave me some worried looks when they saw me with Tiara and Spoon. We came to a stop at some iron gates in front the mansion at the end of the street, a slim grey unicorn opening the gate at the sight of us. He raised an eyebrow on his bored face when he noticed me, still managing to look bored out of his mind. He didn't wear anything too fancy, just a simple tie around his neck.     "-Young Tiara, I see you have brought the town's newest resident with you.-" He points out in his monotone voice. "-Are you going to take it to your father? Filthy Rich seems to be very interested in meeting it.-" He asks, earning a knowing sigh from Tiara. "-I guess I will. You're just going to tell him anyway, right?-" Tiara asks, looking down. "-I will inform him that you brought a guest aside from young Spoon, just not who it was. That's up to you, to take him to your father.-" He says, showing an emotion other than boredom, giving them a small smile. "-Thanks, Stone Heart.-" Tiara smiled. "-You better get going, Tiara. Your father is in his study, just so you know.-" He motions towards the mansion, shutting the gate behind us with a slight grey glow from his horn. Tiara thanked him and lead us into the mansion. I had stopped when we entered the foyer, the sheer amount of wealth put into that room alone made me stop in shock. I had never felt so poor at the moment, seeing gold trim all throughout the room. There was a giant detailed family portrait at the top of the stairs, depicting Tiara and two other ponies. The pony on the left side of a smiling Tiara was a brown furred normal pony that looked very exhausted, like he had an all nighter running something important and was regretting it at the moment. The pony on the other side had coat was a deep shade of gold, her mane a dark ebony. She looked bored, like she wanted be somewhere else, like, anywhere else but where she was. "I think I've seen something like this before..... On T.V, I think." I think to myself, scratching my chin, trying to remember what exactly happened in it. I shrug. "Meh..... Maybe It's nothing." "-Come on, Dakota.-" Spoon nudges me from behind, wanting to hurry a little. "Oh, right." I shake my head, remembering what I was doing. The three of us went up the stairs and took the left hallway, passing a few maids on the way and observing the various paintings. After some maids stopped us, speaking with Tiara informally before running off to do things, we ended up at a big door with the picture of a diamond studded tiara emblazoned on it. I almost laugh at the obvious answer of who's room it is. Tiara opened the door, revealing the room fit for a princess. Her bed was one of those beds with the curtain things surrounding it, I never really learned the name for them. There was a bunch of other expensive looking things in the room, making me feel nervous at the thought of accidentally breaking something. Spoon and I entered first, taking seats on the bed. Tiara followed soon after, taking a seat on a golden stool that had various gems encrusted on the legs and shrugging off her saddlebags onto the floor.Spoon and Tiara talked to each other for a little bit, while I thought about things, zoning out. "Hmmm.... Now, let's see here.... I have a windup key slot on my back, right? That means there's a key just lying around somewhere..... I wonder what happens when I'm 'wound up'......What happens if I'm 'overwound?' Do I even need to be wound? Soooo many questions, so little answers...." "-Dakota?-" Spoon asks, breaking me out of my reverie. "Hmm?" I blink and turn to Spoon, seeing her look at me confusedly. She got up and grabbed an ink and quill alongside some paper on Tiara's desk, writing down some words in English. She carefully wrote them down, taking her time. When she finished, she passed them over to me. (You okay? You look at wall for while...)   "Oh, great! Look at what I did! I made her worry about me!" I panic a little, causing the tentacles to instinctively retract until they were just poking out of my back. I sigh and take another sip my soda, placing it on a nearby table. Deciding to be honest with her, getting up and turning my back to them, to her and Tiara's confusion. I slowly and hesitantly lift the back of my shirt up, revealing the metal slot. They both gasp in shock, making me quickly shove the shirt back down in fear of scaring them. "-What is that!-" Tiara yelled, freaked out about the hole in my back.    "-It looked like a keyhole....-" Spoon trails off, thinking about why I showed her it and raising an eyebrow at me, making me point at my back and shrug. "-It looks like even she doesn't know what it does.-" "-That still doesn't explain why it's there.-" Spoon got behind me, lifting up my shirt to take a better look and making me blush at the action. "-Hmmm......-" She hums, poking around my back with her hoof and taking mental notes. She poked at some hard parts on my spine and gasped again, feeling something move. "-Uhh.... Tiara, come here.-" Tiara hesitantly came over, fearful of what her friend found. "-Put your hoof where mine is. What do you feel?-" Spoon asks, wanting to confirm what she felt. Tiara recoiled, feeling something round spinning inside my back. "-Are those.... Gears!-" Tiara asks in horrified disgust, wondering what I've been through. "-It feels that way, probably. It looks like she got them put in a long time ago, just look at the scars, they're all over her back.-" Spoon points out, trying to make her friend feel a little better about the fact I wasn't in pain. "-It seems like they don't hurt her any.... Looking at the pattern of the scars, it looks like she was....opened up....-" Spoon shudders at the thought. "-.. But, what purpose do they serve?-" Spoon thinks aloud, still poking at my back. "-You're not helping....-" Tiara mutters, seeing her friend go 'analyst mode.' For a few minutes, Spoon kept poking around my back and avoiding the tentacles, Tiara watching it all in disgust from her seat. The next few things happened pretty quickly. Spoon had somehow got her hoof in the slot, the hole being big enough for her small hoof, making me twitch at the feeling of something entering my back. "Uhh, what are yo-" I guess she had the bright idea to try to turn it counterclockwise with her hoof, making me black out from the intense pain that followed, the sound of broken machinery being the last thing I heard. "I'm.... An.....idiot...." Now in 3rd person Dakota had dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground, taking Spoon down her. Spoon's hoof was stuck in the metal slot, making Dakota's back emit a horrible screeching noise. Tiara watched this all go down in shock, her screaming heard throughout the mansion, startling everyone inside. "Tiara, help! I'm stuck!" Spoon yelled, getting her friend's attention. "I'm going to get help! Stay right there!" Tiara yelled back, running out the door as fast as she can. "It's not like I could go anywhere right now, even if I wanted to....." Spoon mutters. Spoon did her best to pry her hoof out of Dakota's back, failing miserably. Sighing, she lied down on Dakota's back, waiting for her friend to come back with help. Spoon put her ear against Dakota's back, listening for a pulse, only to start sobbing when she heard nothing, not even breathing. She looked at the back of Dakota's head, apologizing silently with tears in her eyes. "I-I'm sorry.... I don't know what turning it would do..." She sobbed, fearing the worst. In minutes, the whole room was suddenly filled with ponies trying to unstick Spoon from Dakota. After a few more minutes, most of which was explaining to both Spoon's and Tiara's parents the situation at hoof and trying to remove a crying Tiara who was not leaving her friend's side for anything. They had placed Dakota on the back of Stone Heart with Spoon on top of her. Stone helped relieve the weight with his magic, using a minor form of levitation. After giving Tiara some persuasive arguments on why she should stay home, Stone had left in the direction of the hospital with Dakota and Spoon, leaving everyone else behind at the mansion. As they walked, they had some ponies start to follow them, watching the town's newest resident on Stone's back with worry, seeing her deathly still with a sobbing Spoon on her back. Applejack, who was running her apple stand at the time, saw this scene and went to check what was going on. "What in tarnation is goin' on here?" Applejack asked, earning a tired look from Stone. "Miss Spoon did something to Dakota and she got stuck, making Miss Dakota fall unconscious. We believe-" Stone was interrupted by the small voice from behind him. "S-S-She's not u-unconscious..... SHE'S DEAD!" Spoon yells, making Applejack flinch at the volume and causing the crowd to swarm them, wanting to take a look at the condition of their newest resident. "Are ya sure, sugarcube? It looks to me like she's just sleepin'...." Applejack asks, looking at Dakota with uncertainty. "YES, IM SURE, BECAUSE SHE HAS NO PULSE AND SHE ISN'T BREATHING!" Spoon explodes, the stress of the situation making her hysterical. "IT'S ALL MY FAULT!" "Oh.... She's not lyin'..." Applejack mutters to herself with wide eyes. "I'll go get the girls!" Applejack announced, running off in the other direction. Stone had made it to the hospital in under half an hour, the crowd not making it any easier for him or his passengers. He opened the door to the emergency room. Sparing a moment to glare at the crowd, making them all back off in fear, he entered the building. His abrupt entry startled the only mare in the room, the unicorn nurse Red Heart. "I don't mean to sound like an imbecile, my dear, but where are the other medical staff?-" Stone asks in his normal monotone, levitating Dakota and Spoon onto the nearby gurney. "We are very understaffed here today. There was a scheduling mishap, so there's only four ponies in the whole building." Red explains, looking a little upset. She quickly went over to the gurney, noting the obvious problem with Spoon and looking at Dakota a little unsurely, not knowing what to do for her. "Can you tell me what's wrong with her?" "S-She's d-dead....." Spoon whispers, obviously traumatized at being stuck to her unmoving friend. "What!?!" Red Heart exclaimed, shocked at the severity of the situation. She quickly cast a small spell that made Spoon's hoof pop out of the slot, making the filly quickly running off to a nearby bench to cry over her mistake. Stone frowned and turned towards Red. "I have a traumatized filly to console, I wish the both you the best of luck, despite how uncertain the situation is right now." He said his goodbye and walked towards the crying filly, leaving Red with the presumed dead girl on the gurney. Red quickly pushed Dakota into an operating room, hooking Dakota up to the various medical devices in the room to the best of her ability, noticing that the heartbeat monitor didn't even register that Dakota was hooked up. Fifteen minutes later. This particular hallway in Ponyville General has never been more gloomy, the lifeless body of Dakota in the room at the end of the hall. All of the element bearers had gathered in the hall, joining a distraught Ash and a Traumatized Spoon in trying to figure out what happened to Dakota. Twilight had entered the room five minutes ago, helping with the autopsy. "I can't believe she's gone..... I've never lost a child........ Never! Waaaaaaaaaa!" Ash sobbed into her hooves, having came here as fast as she could when she heard the news. "She couldn't have..... 'dropped' just like that, she was up and about all day yesterday." Rainbow ponders, looking in the direction of the room. "The poor dear..... to have her life ended so suddenly...." Fluttershy sniffed, having been crying since she had heard the news. "Ah wonder what Spoon was doing with Dakota." Applejack rubs her chin. "Her hoof was caught in somethin' on Dakota's back when she was being brought here." She turns to Spoon, who was sitting on a nearby bench. "S-she had a keyhole the size of my hoof in my back..... I-I p-put my hoof in there and t-turned, wondering what would happen....-" Spoon whispers, everyone turning to look at her in confusion. Stone frowned and wrapped his hooves gently around her, whispering to her how it wasn't her fault. The door at the end of the hall opened, Twilight and Red walking out with solemn expressions on their faces. The hallway went silent, waiting to hear the news. Twilight ran a hoof through her mane, letting out a shuddering sigh. "Girls..... It looks like Dakota had hidden some stuff from us." Twilight said, looking down. "There was a keyhole in her lower back, connected to it was some other gears and wires that kept her active, like some kind of toy." She informed, making Rainbow snort in disbelief. "When Spoon had turned her hoof inside the keyhole, it had triggered some kind of failsafe, causing the gears to forcefully shut down... To be honest, I have a hard time believing that her hoof did all that." "You mean to tell us that she was a some kind of robot? I don't believe you." Rainbow dash spoke up, crossing her hooves across her chest. "You're not too far off, Rainbow. After taking some closer looks at her insides, I would say that she's a some kind of doll." Twilight explained, not surprised at Rainbow's attitude. "I'll tell you the specifics later, after we fix her." "She can be fixed?" Spoon hopefully asks, finally standing up from her seat. "I don't want to be 'that' mare, dearie. But, as we all have seen in that room, the poor darling is gone." Rarity speaks up, skeptical of Twilight. "All she needs is to be wound up with her key, it should bring her back." Twilight explains, having took an extensive look at the clockwork inside Dakota's back. "There is some kind of magic in effect that keeps her brain and insides from decomposing, so she should be just fine for a while." "So we need to find the key......" Spoon trails off. "Can we make a new one? If we can't find it, I mean." "Well.... We could, but it would take some time." Twilight replied, frowning at the thought of not finding the key. She had done some extensive magical tests on the keyhole, finding that the key for it needed some kind of unknown magic to trigger the mechanism. "I'll go send a letter to the princess, informing her of the situation and seeing if she has an idea where the key is." Twilight informs. "The rest of you, go search Dakota's house for the key. If I had to guess, it would be somewhere she wouldn't lose it." "Last one there is a moldy cupcake!" Rainbow exclaims, flying out a nearby open window. "Ah can't believe she wants to race at a time like this." Applejack mutters, running off. "I can't let such a fashionable little darling stay in this condition if I can help it." Rarity nods and runs off. "O-okay!" Fluttershy whisper yells in affirmative, gracefully running off after her friends. "Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie salutes, bouncing down the hallway and disappearing after jumping into a potted plant at the end of the hallway. Twilight looked at where Pinkie was and sighed, thinking about that mare made her head hurt. Turning to Spoon, Twilight gave her a small frown. "You should probably go home, your parents are probably worried about you." She suggests before teleporting to her tree, leaving Spoon, Ash, Red, and Stone alone in the hallway. "Sooooo...... From what I've understood from that little convo', was that Dakota will be fine, right?" Ash asks, wanting to make sure that Dakota will be fine. "I guess so......" Red confirms. "She should be up and about when she is wound up." "Don't you think lady Sparkle would like some more assistance looking for the key?" Stone asks in his monotone. "Especially you, Ash. Dakota is your responsibility, you should assist in the search." He points out, making Ash flinch. "I....uh.......may have forgotten the way back......" Ash sheepishly smiles, embarrassed to admit that she is terrible with directions. "I am still new to this town and I haven't had much time to memorize the layout." She excused, her ears laying back in embarrassment. Stone sighed. "Young Spoon, you know the way back to the mansion, right?" He asks, earning an affirmative from Spoon. "Then I suppose I could show you the way, I have passed the house a few times during the shopping trips Master Rich had sent me on." He gave Spoon a little bow. "I'll trust you to go home before supper is served, as I will be showing the forgetful Miss Ash the way to her recent home." He explains, Ash looking a little miffed at the 'forgetful' comment. Spoon gave a slow nod in agreement, watching Ash and Stone walk off to find Dakota's home. She sighed, turning to look in the direction of Dakota's hospital room, wondering if she should go in there to keep her friend company. Who knows, maybe Dakota could be fully aware of what's going on around her. "Are you going to be alright?" Red asks Spoon, taking a seat next to her. Spoon turned to Red, looking a little down. "I could be better....." Red gave Spoon's back a little pat, trying to make her feel better. "Look on the bright side, your friend might make a full recovery." Spoon sighed again, Red failing terribly at the pep-talk. "Yeah, but all this is my fault. I-I just had to put m-my hoof in there....." Spoon sniffled, feeling like the worst friend in history. "Hey, it's alright, you were curious. I bet even she was curious too, just by letting you so that. No harm was really done, it just...... Made her sleepy." Red tried to make light of the situation, trying to make a comparison to Dakota's issue. "All she needs now, is the key Twilight was talking about. It should wake her right up! I'm sure of it." Spoon shrugged, feeling a little better. "Maybe you're right.... Dakota will be just fine.... Can I go see her?" Spoon asks, looking a little more confident. "Go ahead, hun. I'm not going to stop friends from seeing each other." Red smiles, giving Spoon a little push towards the room. Spoon thanked Red and walked in the room, shutting the door behind her. Spoon slowly walked beside the bed with the, now eerily still, Dakota. Twilight and Red had removed her clothes earlier and put her in an ill-fitting hospital gown, having to cut open Dakota's back to get a good look at the mechanism. Dakota had a serene look about her, the gentle afternoon light coming from the window shining on her and making her look like some kind of princess waiting for her prince to kiss her awake. Her hair was wildly sprawled about, covering one eye and leaving the other one exposed. Spoon stared at Dakota's body, taking in the scene before her. Silently, as if trying to not wake her friend, she covered Dakota with the small blanket, giving her small peck on the cheek and a small apology. Spoon soon took her spot next to Dakota, snuggling closer to her arm with a small blush on her face. "I'm sooooo sorry for what I did. If you can hear me in there, please forgive me." Spoon whispered. The excitement for the day had caught up to her, causing her to pass out right where she was, right in Dakota's arms. Meanwhile, back at Dakota's house. Ash and Stone made it there with little problem, having to push their way through some small crowds of ponies asking about Dakota's condition. Stone had opened the door with his magic, motioning a blushing Ash inside. What they saw when they got in...... An absolute mess. Rainbow had opened a closet and was currently emptying the contents onto the floor in a pile. Fluttershy had brought Angel and both were coordinating various groups of small critters' search patterns from the living room. Rarity was somewhere, probably upstairs looking in Dakota's room. Pinkie was in the kitchen, somehow both making cupcakes and raiding the pantry of all things sweet. Applejack was currently making her way upstairs, having looked through the medicine cabinet. "I expect that all of you will help in cleaning all of this up when you are done." Ash sighed, not excited to clean the mess alone. "Ahm sorry, sugarcube. Ah didn't mean to make a mess, it just sort of happened." Applejack shrugged. "Don't worry, ah'll help clean when we find the key." "Hey girls!" Everyone heard Rarity yell from upstairs. "I think I found something!" Everyone, except Pinkie, rushed upstairs to see what Rarity found. When they entered Dakota's room, they saw Rarity holding Dakota's doll in her magical grip, the doll slowly emitting some kind of smoke from its body. The smoke was slowly forming something solid in front of the doll, to the confusion of everyone there.... Except pinkie, she sat down at the kitchen table and took an annoyed bite out of a freshly made cupcake, mumbling something about the writer not having better idea for them to find the key and getting revenge for her fallen army of sweets. "What is that?!?" Fluttershy yells\whispers, backing up into the hallway out of fear. It was at this point Twilight had teleported into the room, surprising everyone. "Hey, anypony make any progress finding the key?" She looked at Applejack, who had responded by slowly pointing behind Twilight. Twilight confusedly turned around, panicking when she saw the doll doing......whatever it was doing. "Dear, what is it doing?" Rarity asks, hesitant to let go of it. "It's draining my magic a little...." She huffed, feeling the drain. "Whatever you do, don't let go! That is some seriously dangerous magic draining you, just one interruption in the flow, it could explode.....or something!" Twilight exclaimed, the smoke taking a more solid form. "Just don't let go and stay calm! It should be done soon." She explained, backing up a little. Rarity looked worried for a second, before the draining increased drastically and made her almost collapse. Giving another huff in determination, she pumped more magic around the doll, seeing the smoke solidify to form a brass key the size of a filly's hoof. The smoke then retracted into the doll, the doll giving an eerie smile with its sewn on mouth and dropping onto the floor with a heavy thud. The key then dropped onto the ground alongside Rarity, startling her friends. "I....I'm fine....uh... just a lost a good chunk of my magic, that's all." Rarity assures, slowly and shakily getting up. "Ya sure, sugar?" Applejack asks, moving over to help support a wobbly Rarity. "Ya look like ya haven't slept in weeks." "It's fine, Darling. I just need some rest for a little while, losing a great deal of magic tends to make you exhausted." Rarity tiredly smiles at her friend. "It's not a big deal, I can get it all back with some rest....." Twilight hummed, levitating the doll and key, examining them closely. The doll changed a little, it now had one red button eye, while the other eye is now a crudely sewn on red crossed out circle. It still kept grinning sinisterly, chilling Twilight down to the bone. Twilight tried to search for magic in the doll, only to find some kind of magic that made her horn feel like it was dipped into liquid nitrogen. "Twilight?" Fluttershy worriedly asks, seeing Twilight visibly recoil at the new sensation. "Is everything okay?" "Everything should be fine. Just a little worried about this little guy's display, that's all." Twilight admitted, holding up the doll in her magical grip. "It has some new kind of magic I've never even felt before...... Like it shouldn't even exist?" She unsurely explains. "I dunno, I think I'll have to confiscate this thing.... Until we know what the effects of it are, then we can give it back." She adds, seeing her friends' unamused looks. "I don't think she'll take too kindly to that." Ash speaks up, startling those who didn't notice her in the doorway. "I know, but, when it comes to magic, especially kinds we don't know, it never hurts to be on the safe side." Twilight quickly teleported the doll away, leaving behind the key. "At least we got what we were looking for." "Yeah, let's just get that thing back to fix Dakota." Ash sighed, not liking Twilight's plan.   They all quickly left the house, going back to the hospital, Applejack supporting Rarity the whole way. When they got there, they saw the royal carriage parked out front, a small squadron of guards covering the front door. Twilight gasped and ran inside, wanting to be the first one to explain what all happened to her teacher. Everyone shared a look and went inside with little issue, the guards restricting access to the building let them in, only stopping Stone for a second, before Ash told them he was with her. The group hurriedly went to Dakota's hospital room, wanting to see their friend wake up. "Hello, my little ponies." Celestia smiled from her seat by the bed, happily seeing the familiar group enter. She had just sat through a quick and precise explanation of pretty much everything from her faithful student. "Nice to see you all again. Oh, I see you have a new member in your group! Can you tell me your name?" Celestia asks, getting up from her seat. "Stone Heart, princess, pleasure to meet you." Stone politely bows. "No need to bow, Stone. Now, Twilight, let's get our little friend woken up." Celestia nods towards Twilight, who was levitating the key. Twilight gently slid the sleeping form of Spoon over, just enough to move Dakota without problem. She  then turned Dakota around, the keyhole now visible to everyone.  The audience watched in anxious silence, the key slowly entering with a click. The key slowly turned clockwise, the sound of clicking coming from Dakota's back. After three full rotations, the scars flashed and Dakota's eyes shot open, a loud gasp coming from her before dropping unconscious again, startling everyone. "Okay, Twilight, stop turning it and pull it out. She's okay." Celestia says, hearing the heart monitor start beeping in response to the heart being started. Twilight pulled the key out and turned Dakota around so she would lay on her back, gently sliding Spoon back where she was. Turning around with the key, Twilight levitated it over to Ash, who grabbed it with a wing. They spent a few minutes talking to each other, reviewing what they had learned about Dakota and made some plans, in case this sort of thing happened again. Twilight informed them about what she found inside of Dakota, like the wires wrapping around her heart are connected to her tentacles and brain. There was a black mass inside her chest, connected to four empty pockets of flesh. The gears and wires were wrapped around her vertebrae, almost like an extension of her nervous system. Her bones..... Some of them weren't even bones! Some of them were oversized doll parts! Though the most disturbing fact she released was the numerous small scars criss-crossing Dakota's whole body, meaning that this all wasn't even a natural thing for her species. The scars went from her head to toe, centering around her back, where the gears were. Everyone was a little green around the face at the thought of someone doing all of this to a child, horrified to hear of the torture she has gone through. After the explaining was done, everyone froze as Dakota's eyes opened up. Meanwhile, near Fluttershy's cottage. A little roar came from the woods near Fluttershy's home, startling every critter there. Following the roar, a loud scream belonging to the strange rabbit that ran from the bush near Angel. Angel let out an annoyed huff, this was the third time this week that some kind of predator tried to eat an animal near his home. The strange rabbit ran into the door, bouncing off of it for a second and turning around, seeing if the monster followed. The roars became louder, more high pitched, as if it was something young. Angel hopped over to the panicking rabbit, noticing its thick armored face and forelegs first. He raised an eyebrow in confusion at the detail, before calling in some backup in the form of Ms. Grizzly for help in case this roaring was something dangerous. The roaring suddenly stopped, everything going eerily silent, the rabbit wrapping its forearms around Angel in fear. They waited for something to move, eyeing the forest's edge in anticipation. Suddenly, a black figure rushed out of the treeline, racing towards the two rabbits. Ms. Grizzly acted quickly, clubbing the blur with one paw, sending it crashing into the nearby pond. It clumsily rose to its claws, revealing its dazed form. It looked like some kind of bat, if you didn't count the spiked tail and the dragon-like wings. It growled furiously, quickly getting out of the water and hissing at Ms. Grizzly, who just stared amusedly at it. Angel hopped beside Ms. Grizzly, leaving the strange rabbit at the door and started chittering neutrally at the creature, trying to talk some sense into it, Ms. Grizzly adding her own two bits into the discussion whenever it became too heated.  After some time, they came to an agreement, nodding and slowly moving back to the rabbit. The rabbit was skittish, looking between the two, as if trying to decide whether or not to run. The creature whimpered in apology, seeing the bear give it a stern look. The rabbit looked confused for a moment, tilting its head before shyly moving beside Angel, who looked pleased with how things turned out. The moment was ruined by a familiar noise, a growling stomach. The creature looked away, embarrassed by the noise. Angel gave a silent laugh, making the creature growl in response, and hopped inside the door through the doggie door to look for fish to feed this guy. The strange rabbit looked at the creature for a moment and quickly hopped in after Angel, seeing it give her a hungry stare. Angel was suddenly tackled by the rabbit, its forearms wrapping around him in a hug and making him shudder in response, the armor plating scratched in the right places. He fell, taking the rabbit with him and making her blush what she had done. She quickly got off of him and helped him up, chittering numerous apologies to him, to which he waved off and hopped up onto a counter. He waved to her to get her up onto the counter with him, he needed the help to open the freezer. She effortlessly jumped up, looking to Angel for instruction. He pointed at the freezer and mimed opening it, she deadpanned and chittered something that translated as, 'you know you can talk, right?" He blushed in embarrassment at what she said. They both got the freezer door open with little trouble, the strange rabbit's weight helped force the door open, while Angel pushed a few fish out onto the floor. The freezer door shut by itself while they pushed out the fish for the hungry creature outside. The moment the fish were out the doggie door, they disappeared into the creature's mouth. The two rabbits looked at each other in amusement at the display. The creature looked at the two confusedly, a fish head poking out the side of its mouth for a second, until it swallowed it whole. Smiling happily, it walked over and licked them both in thanks, scarring one and making the other's ego rise. The only thing that went through Angel's mind at the moment was simple. "What am I gonna do about these two?"